Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects--and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal… or his life?

Note: After the series ended The Death Note One-Shot Special was published which explains what happens in the series three years after the Kira case is resolved.

Won the Eagle Award for Favourite Manga in 2008. Was nominated as Best Manga at the 2006 American Anime Awards, the 2007 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, an Official Selection at Angoulême International Comics Festival 2008 and Obata was nominated for Best Penciller/Inker at the 2008 Eisner Awards.

DN is definitely an awesome series. The characters, premise, art - all are fantastic and draw you in to this fast-paced story right away.

At least at first. After a while, the story starts to drag. I found myself just skimming through the last 15 chapters or so. The dialogue had gotten so muddled and unnecessarily complex that it wasn't even worth reading.

But the beginning was great. Its a well-thought out, intelligent, dark read, and certainly memorable.

Well, I could honestly say that the author probably didn't have an actual story. He was just making up events AFTER "Light finds a book with the phrase DEATH NOTE written across of it"... None of the events are interesting...

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And what's worse is that it gets EVEN WORSE when the notebook started getting passed around like it's marijuana. I went to Wikipedia and read the part when L dies so I immediately lost interest in it. Seriously, the only thing that kept me reading was L.

It made me think, I'll give it that... and, you really couldn't expect it to end in any other way. After all, after killing so many of the people "in his way", no matter what his ideals, he was just a terrorist.

A story with a similar premise that actually came out earlier is Akumetsu, which i recommend. IMO, it was better.

So. beginning to

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L's death

was good. Then it went downhill when Light, as many of you have already said, became a monster.

What can I say? I had mixed feelings for this series which would often alter as I read on, and still I cannot put it into words. Perhaps 'Wow!' is the best way to describe it.

When I started this series, I thought it was going to seriously suck big time like some story about a Ninja in an orange suit. The first chapter proved me wrong. It was insanely awesome!

The plot was very gripping, kept you at the edge of your seats. It was exciting seeing how L and Light constantly tried to outwit each other.

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However, after Chapter 58 the plot suddenly went downhill. And no, it's because of L's death, though I love him very much. It was more like, Light didn't have the awesome-ness he had at the very beginning. And the plot more or less focused on the investigation of Kira rather than Light himself.

The characters...

Light, more or less represents human's greed and desires. I'm not sure what to think about him, though. Indeed, I got rather pissed off at him in Chapter 58 but I couldn't help not hating him... and yet I disliked him, perhaps of his personality and him being a jerk. I mean, sure he's clever and well... good-looking (not my taste though), but in my eyes, he's just a psyco, traitor and *Coughs*womanizer*Coughs*.

L, however is freakin' awesome. He has this charm which Near and Mellow phails. I can't quite understand why I'm attracted to him since I'm not so fond of 'Clever, Cute, Quiet' goody-goody guys. I guess I love his laid-back attitude and those little habits he has. I also felt extremely touched by the fact that he seems socially awkward.

As I have said Near and Mellow don't have the charm L posesses. Sure they managed to crack the case but honestly, I don't see much character developement though I understand why the author would want to 'develope their personality through action'. I guess it's because Near is a phailed clone of L... and Mellow just phails... =__=

Misa... one of the most annoying girls in the whole of Manga history. 'Nuff said.

As for the ending, I'm fine with it. It was obvious what was going to happen to him, since there was a huge clue on the first chapter. Also Light deserved what he got and... well it was amusing in some ways seeing him begging. Couldn't have ended any better. "^^

I am, however thankful that there were some unexpected turn of events. It must have been very risky for OHBA Tsugumi having to lose fans. Nevertheless, Death Note is manages to remain popular nowadays.

I would like to share my opinion about this manga....This is one of best manga ever written.And I love Obata Takeshi's artwork!The story is really psycho n dark, and I love it. I also love villain as the main character. And Kira is bishounen too. Way too cool...It's revolutionary manga.

Death Note really kept me on edge. It was great to try and figure out all of the things that the main characters were working on. When things seemed like they were to tough to fix, it was amazing to see how Light or L would pull a fast one and fix everything up right then.

It was also great to see the change in characters. In the end, one person is the bad guy, but by the end, you can't help but cheer for him as the good guy.

I completely agree with most of everyone who posted: death note is one of the best mangas out there! the art is fabulous and the story is real interesting. however, the logic can be mind-numbing at times... but it's still fun reading how they deduce things. the characters are interesting and very smart, but it seems like all the non-main characters are kinda stupid, especially the females. about halfway through, it gets kind of bleh and starts going downhill from there. the logic isnt as smart anymore and it feels like the story's just rushing to an end. regardless, it's still worth completing. the ending's totally inevitable.all-in-all death note = must read.

I think I can honestly say this is one of the best manga I have ever read. It's incredibly intelligent (up to a point where your brain hurts trying to decipher it all), really gripping, and not to mention...super cool. Light is the most incredible character I have ever come across and I don't care what anyone says....I like him. He's slightly obsessive, but so what? I wouldn't mind having him as the ruler of a new world Read this. You won't regret it! (Though your head might...XD)

Death Note is very thought stimulating, and is in-depth, but if you like mysteries, than you will probably like this. I thought it was wonderful, its complex, and the characters are easy to get attached to though you may not want to gt too attached, lol. It has great drawings, and a very interesting view on things. You also get to understand what most people would call the "bad guy" a lot better than in most books.